Saturday, May 19, 2012

Globally the worldviews of atheism and non-religious (agnostic) are declining while global Christianity is exploding in adherents

In recent times, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) has been publishing statistics on the growth and decline of adherents for various worldviews/religions and they publish their findings in January of each year. Various Christian groups disseminate their research findings such as the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (IBMR).

The report estimates about 80,000 new Christians every day, 79,000 new Muslims every day, and 300 fewer atheists every day. These atheists are presumably disproportionately represented in the West, while religion is thriving in the Global South, where charismatic Christianity is exploding. Over 600 million Christians, including millions of Roman Catholics, are charismatic or Pentecostal.

(As a theologically conservative Protestant, I do understand that not everyone who proclaims themselves a Christian is a bona fide Christian in God's eyes and there are people who are deluded and/or false teachers. See: Matthew 7:23, Matthew 7: 14-15)

In 2012 it was reported there are 800 less atheists each day in the world

In 2012 an article entitled Atheism in decline by Nigel Tomes declared:

The IBMR publishes yearly figures for religions (and non religions) around the globe. Their latest numbers, hot off the press (Jan. 2012) show some interesting trends.

1. Atheism is in Decline

In 1970 atheists (those avowing there is no God) numbered 166 million worldwide; that was almost one-in-twenty—4.5% of the globe’s population. By 2012 atheists’ number is estimated at 137 million. That’s a decline of almost 30 million. Since world population is growing, atheists’ share declined to less than one-in-fifty—under 2% in 2012. Put differently, every 24 hours there are 800 fewer atheists in the world! Atheism is in decline.

2. Agnosticism is in Decline

In 2000 agnostics (those who “don’t know” if there is a God) numbered 666 million, 10.9% of the world’s people. By 2012 agnostic’s number is estimated at 661 million--a decline of 5 million. In relative terms by 2012 agnostics represent less than one tenth (9.4%) of world population. Every 24 hours there are 1,100 less agnostics in the world. Agnostics are also in decline.

Added together these two groups make up a declining share of global population. In 1970 atheists and agnostics accounted for one-in-five (19.2%) of the world’s people. Based on current trends by 2025 they will represent less than one-in-ten (9.7%). Their population share will fall by half in 50+ years.

We encourage you to examine the entire 2012 article by Nigel Tomes entitled Atheism in decline as it has some encouraging news about the growth of global Christianity.

In 2009, the book A sceptics guide to atheism indicated: "A worldwide poll taken in 1991 put the global figure for atheists at just 4.4% of the population. By 2006 it was estimated that only 2% of the world population were atheists."

Michael Blume, a researcher at the University of Jena in Germany, wrote "Most societies or communities that have espoused atheistic beliefs have not survived more than a century." Blume also indicated concerning concerning his research on this matter: "What I found was the complete lack of a single case of a secular population, community or movement that would just manage to retain replacement level."

Investigator Magazine had an interesting article published in 1990 entitled 2,000 years of Christian Increase which indicated that historically the percentage of the world population professing Christianity has been increasing.

Comprehensive look at the decline of evolutionism, atheism and agnosticism

New Atheism reported to have little to no effect on atheism evangelism

New Atheism is a new form of militant atheism which started in the period between 2004 and 2007. The New Atheism movement has not had much of an impact in terms of gaining new adherents to atheism. In a March 10, 2008 USA Today article Stephen Prothero wrote:

Numbers lie, but they also tell tales untrustworthy and otherwise. So the key question stirring around the much discussed U.S Religious Landscape Survey released in late February by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life is what tale does it state about the state of the union.

For some, the story of this survey, based on interviews in multiple languages with more than 35,000 adults, is the strength of American Religion.

Not too long ago, I wrote that American atheism was going the way of the freak show. As books by Christopher Hitchens and other "new atheists" climbed the best seller lists, I caught a lot of flak for that prophecy. But atheist make up only 1.6% of respondents to this survey....

11 comments:

So assuming these study results are even accurate, your implications based on them ignore some glaring facts. Firstly, while "80,000 new Christians a day" may sound like there are being hordes of people converted daily, the reality is not so. There are roughly 140 MILLION people born daily. Doing the math out, that would be about 0.055% of people being born daily. When you compare that number to the approximate 1/3rd of the world population that identifies as Christian, this hints at a severe decline in Christianity (even taking into account age distribution and the fact that not everybody has the same number of kids, that number should CERTAINLY be higher). Moreover, the use of the term "Atheist" brings about a lot of potential misunderstanding and miscalculation, or even skewing of the statistics. Does this include nonreligious or agnostics? Even still, there are no unified organizations for any of these groups, so how can you even be sure of those numbers? I could go on, but nobody's gonna read this bullshit anyway so why bother.

If you did your due diligence in terms of the resources offered, you would see that demographic changes such as the rates of births of demographic segments of the population have significant effects over time. Watch the Kaufmann videos and due your due diligence in terms of the resources offered. For example, read the information located here: http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-are-years-2012-and-2020-key-years.html

Secondly, our readers do not want "hints" of Christianity severely declining in the world. We want proof and evidence.

In addition, there is the matter of Christian evangelism going on via a global scale and you did not address the effectiveness of Christian evangelism in terms of its effectiveness on a GLOBAL scale (Eastern World evangelism, Africa, etc.).

Next, where is your proof and evidence that global atheism is not losing market share? Where is your proof and evidence that global atheism is not shrinking in terms of its number of adherents (And please notice that I said GLOBAL atheism.) Where is your proof and evidence that global Christianity is not expanding in terms of its number of adherents?

As far as nobody reading your comments, I would suggest stepping up your game via proof and evidence and stop offering mere supposed "hints". We do published thoughtful and supported posts of the opposition. We do not thoughtless comments which employ foul language such as the F word and that is why your other comment was not approved. If you do not considerably step up your game in terms of decorum and substance, you are not adding anything consequential and give little to no incentive in terms of approving those comments. Frankly, so far you have embarrassed yourself and further embarrassed atheism which already has a significantly checkered past (see: atheism).

My intuition told me that you would be like a dog with a bone with your nonsense and not give up. Given you profanity laced comment to me that I did not publish, I don't see why I should cut you some slack.

I had a hunch you would try to publish another comment under another name and it appears my hunch was right. I am not publishing your other comment.

I think your inane claims that Atheism is declining flies in the face of articles that religion is going to go extinct in 9 Western countries within 50 years (the BBC, 22 March 2011).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197

Religions in countries as diverse as Canada, Ireland and Hungary will be limited to rural tent-meetings. The original meaning of "pagan" meant "of the countryside", that is to say, fringe cults away from the urban centers which at that time adopted the official Roman religion of Christianity (just before Rome declined for good). But now the urban population of the developed world is Atheist, so Christian sects out in the country will in fact be the new "pagans"!

I have seen boastful opponents of Christianity fail so many times in terms of their pronouncements that nothing fazes me.

I also believe that fewer of these pronouncements will be made in secular European countries after the European sovereign debt crisis has had its full effect.

You mentioned the BBC. While I mentioned that evangelical Christianity is growing in the UK, there are some significant problems in the UK and its spiritual state overall could be much better. The Bible says wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. Here is something that indicates that the UK is not ready for a major economic challenge: It has a 360% external debt to GDP ratio which appears very high compared to many other nations. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt While there are wise Christians in the UK, it seems as if there are a large number of foolish people as well.

Although I don't agree with everything Professor Bernard Ramm said, I do agree with this statement of his:

"Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. With their massora they kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph. They had special classes of men within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity – scribes, lawyers, masoretes.

In regard to the New Testament, there are about 13,000 manuscripts, complete and incomplete, in Greek and other languages, that have survived from antiquity.

A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put. No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet?

The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions."

You wrote: "But now the urban population of the developed world is Atheist"

In the future, please support your claims via a citation. I suspect you are overstating matters. I have traveled to many cities within the developed world and I never had a problem finding a church to go to on Sunday.

Furthermore, I suspect you have a certain degree of snobbery relating to city life. For example, perhaps in some regions due to air pollution, residents in the countryside live longer.

Personally, I see various benefits to city, suburban and rural living.

1. Survey research is often sloppy when it comes to the "No religion" and misidentifies nondenominational Christians as "no religion" individuals so I have my reservations in trusting this claim about the USA. See: http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/08/research-shows-american.html

2. You are not addressing the central claim of the article which focuses of the global scope of things.

3. Please show me where in the article I made the bandwagon fallacy (ad populum fallacy). I didn't.

4. Me thinks the gentlemen protests too much. You seem threatened by an article indicating that: global atheism/agnosticism is shrinking; the expected shrinking is expected to accelerate and this will have an affect on the number of adherents of atheism/agnosticism in the Western World.

1. Survey research is often sloppy when it comes to the "No religion" and misidentifies nondenominational Christians as "no religion" individuals so I have my reservations in trusting this claim about the USA. See: http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/08/research-shows-american.html

If you look at the beliefs of nondenominational Christians they are not Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox and would appear to fit the Protestant category of Christendom

2. You are not addressing the central claim of the article which focuses of the global scope of things. Thus, your argumentation appears to sidestep the main issue raised in the article.

3. Please show me where in the article I made the bandwagon fallacy (ad populum fallacy). I didn't. In fact, I offered an article as a resource which debunks atheism.

4. Me thinks the gentlemen protests too much. You seem threatened by an article indicating that: global atheism/agnosticism is shrinking; the expected shrinking is expected to accelerate and this will have an affect on the number of adherents of atheism/agnosticism in the Western World.

5. Are you willing to have a debate centered around Christianity vs. atheism/agnosticismvia a recorded oral debate which would be distributed to tens of thousands of people.

If you are confident in your atheist/agnostic beliefs, please make the necessary arrangements via this free chat room: http://login.meetcheap.com/conference,89538844 You can make the necessary arrangements with the chat room moderators Shockofgod or VivaYehshua. Alternatively, you can email Shockofgod via his YouTube email at http://www.youtube.com/user/shockofgod

If you want to know more about the debate, any and all questions should be directed to Shockofgod or VivaYehshua

There will be no future communication with you via this blog until you accept this debate offer and carry through with the debate.

The reason atheism is dclining is three-fold in my opinion. Firstly, people see the negativity and spite, even hatred which atheists have for anyone who has strong moral convictions, especially those who believe in God, namely the Christian God. Secondly, the public has become aware that atheists have had all of their arguents trumped in debate by Christians. And perhaps the most effective cause has been the overwhelming evidence that life is a product of Intelligent Design that modern science has so consistently revealed. Comparing what science has revealed to the early-to-mid 19th century claims of evolutionists, the only logical conclusion is that evolution was put forth by people who were vehemently opposed to the existance of God and attempted to fashion scientific excuses for his non-existance by positing material causes has produced life, while at the same time modern science has revealed truly mind-blowing multilevels of complexity, interdependance, information, and design in all life. The result is a slow crash and burn for the materialist's worldview.

We must not waste time judging those who don't believe for they are the antichrists and their words are there to distract us from GOD. Said in 1 Corinthians:

"4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God."

Evils of ATHEISM will see the only truth for themselves when Jesus Christ returns to Earth. So GOD will judge them and GOD alone and we can save our time, to not hear their lies of EVOLUTION. The Holy Spirit KNOWS their hearts are empty!